No matter what product or service your business provides, providing quality information to your blog visitors is vitally important. For example, if you provide accounting or financial planning services, it’s a good idea to provide users with information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a much easier way to keep your users up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site visitors with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Does It Mean?
- RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the content and keeps subscribers automatically updated.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from different sources.
In this guide, we will explain where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide a simple way for online users to receive the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Global media and news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers stories from all around the globe without having to post additional staff and content writers to every location around the world …
(Global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content. Global media publications syndicate content using news feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate their newsworthy content using feeds)
Most sites actually want you to share their information. Content syndication not only allows great information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the site that originally published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Major content sites will have an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most digital news agencies and major online media publications contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS directory. Image Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives you access to content about different sections of the site (e.g. business news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
A feed list can also include further subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: Los Angeles Times)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s website and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to use YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(It’s a good idea to get other website owners to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget as part of your navigation menu …
(The feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed displays)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for their RSS feed button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed icon. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can easily display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website containing content that you want to add to your sidebar …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted – e.g. footer) …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar Menu)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of a sidebar?
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the entire content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
With POWr RSS Feed, you can combine and display content from various sources using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium version of this plugin contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin for WordPress-generated content.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
Install RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to displaying feeds of your posts.
You can inspect this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries seen on Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WordPress installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Post Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for a single post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for using an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:
(Feed For Single Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create individual category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(WP post categories feed format)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
Your category feed now only displays content assigned to that category …
(Category feed)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Create A List Of RSS Feeds For Your Visitors
You can set up your own RSS feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …
(Provide Your Own Page Of Feeds)
Link an image like the one shown below to category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS graphic. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress, go here:
RSS Feeds – Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can use on your site and how to create the feeds …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments published on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that contains the latest comments made on single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/25/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed displaying the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed containing the latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Feed displaying the latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your RSS feed. Place a subscribe button or link somewhere visible …
(Encourage visitors to subscribe to your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality content that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other users to subscribe to your content using RSS feeds!)
If you need help coming up with content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂
Resources:
- Feed Buttons – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation site. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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